Wheel



C. P. GIFFORD.

WHEEL.

APPLICATION FILED JAN.

Patented Jan. 11, 192

CHARLES P. GIFFQRD, QF NEW YORK, N. Y.

wanna.

llpplieation filed January 142, 1920.

sist all strains, particularly side or lateral thrusts, and great durability. The ingenuity ot inventors and designers has been taxed to the utmost to produce, economically, satisfactory wheels of this nature, but as all those skilled in thisfart well know, the coveted goal has not been fully reached.

ln an endeavor to improve upon the plans or" construction heretofore followed in the production of such wheels, l have discovered a wheel and a method of making the same which more nearly meets all of the above enumerated and exacting requirements than anythinp that has come under my observation, and this discovery forms the subject of my present application for Letters Patent;

According to this my invention l build wheels on the same principle that a cabinetmaker builds a veneer. That is to say, the wheel is built up by winding; spirally a thin strip of wood. or any equivalent material, one convolution being firmly united to another by a suitable adhesive substance until a solid body is obtained of ap roximately the dimensions or the wheel desired. After this has been compacted and dried, it is sawed up into bodies of suitable thickness, it

it be ct su'liicieut thickness, and each piece is then turned down to the exact form and dimensions ot the finished wheel. Equipped, it it has not already been built up on such element, with a suitable bushing, and a rim, it is then painted, polished, covered with a metal surface or otherwise finished oil as a complete wheel.

Such wheels have all the desirable propen ties of the best terms of wooden spoked wheels, and possess to a most marked degree great strength, rigidity and power to resist all strains, whether radial or transverse.

ln the accompanying drawings l have illustrated this improved wheel.

Figure 1 is a central vertical section. of a finished wheel. 1

Specification of Letters Eatent.

Serial No. 351,479.

Fig. 2 is an illustration of the manner oi building it up.

Fig. 3 is a portion on an enlarged scale of a metal-covered wheel. Unly such means as are now well known llllille art are required to build up these wheels. l cut or prepare a long strip of wood'or fibrous material 1, such as is used 111 making veneer, and it is generally desirable that when by the nature of the material these strips are limited in length, to splice a numberot them in known ways together end to end. This strip is wound spirally preferably upon a bushing or mandrel 2, glue or other adhesive substance being ap plied to the contacting; surfaces, and suiii cient pressure employed to unite the convolutions closely and firmly.

When by this means a body of the desired diameter is obtained, it is sawed up into bodies of approximately the thickness cl a wheel, unless the strip is only wide enough for one wheel, and then turned down and finished oil to give it an attractive term and appearance. it for wise in an automobile, it is fitted with a metal rim 3 to receive a pneumatictire l. lt may be ornamented in any desired manner, or it may receive a coating 5 of metal of any desired kind which may merely serve as an ornament or as a protection against the weather or add very materially to the strength and appearance of the Wheel. M

The specific method ot'building up what I designate as the veneer is not of the es sence of the invention. For example, after the spiral has reached a certain substantial diameter, a second or other veneer strip 6, as indicated by the dotted lines in 2, may be introduced and used. The material. used is also a matter of selection. Various woods such as are habitually used for male ing veneers may be employed or other suit,

able fibrous materials.

it am aware that various bodies including wheels have been formed by winding; upon itself a more or less flexible of material,

and that the rims for bicycle wheels and the like have been formed by concentric and also by spirally wound and united strips of wood,

but in cases Where wood has been used for this purpose it was of substantial thickness and not of the nature of what is hnown as true veneer. This made it impossible to wmd more than the more runs of wheels of substantial diameter as the material could not be bent into convolutions of smaller diameter without breaking.

According to my invention I make the entire wheel body of the wound strip or strips of wood, which therefore must be of the nature of a true veneer, in order that it may be wound upon a mandrel of small diameter.

Having now described my invention, what I claim is:

1. A wheel for automobiles comprising a body made up entirely of a spirally wound strip of woodQeneer united, compacted and finished to the desired conformation.

*2. A wheel for automobiles comprising a body made up entirely of a spirally wound 15 strip of Wood veneer united, compacted and finished to the desired conformation and coated with a metal.

3. The method of making the bodies of automobile wheels which consists in wind- 20 turning the latter to form the finished wheel. 25

In testimony whereof I hereunto affix my signature.

CHARLES P. GIFFORD. 

